Army exorcised the demons in Colorado Springs on Saturday, and moved one step closer to the CIC trophy. Just by virtue of their being scheduled before the Army Navy game, Air Force had been the gatekeeper to the CIC trophy, and now having shut the falcons down and shut the Falcons out - Army moves on to play Navy in mid-December for the elusive trophy.

129th in passing and 28 pass ypg subtly implies that Army is a running team.

The job that Brent Davis has done in leafing through the playbook over the course of these first 9 games has been outstanding. I used to rave about how Air Force's offense was multiple (squared) They had multiple formations, they ran a variety of option looks and also tried conventional power run and they had a pretty filthy play action game. This is the first time I can remember being this impressed with how Army looked against Air Force. When you look and see the strides that Jeff Monken has taken with this team - keep in mind the style points they earned in this win at Colorado Springs - much of this team's swagger comes from Brent Davis' seemingly unbeatable offense.

With the Air Force game we saw much more of the diamond formation and a few new wrinkles out of the flexbone. Some stuff didn't work. There was a new wishbone misdirection QB keeper that didn't have the time or space to gain yardage. I think that was stuffed for no gain right before Ahmad ripped off another long run for a first down inside Air Force's 20. It kind of opens my eyes to how much of a process it is to find a new edge and then find a place to try these things out in a game. Then blend these new schemes into the mix with the weekly offensive staples.

Even with Duke coming into this one with two weeks' prep time I am not so sure they will be able to bottle up Army's rushing attack. They saw plenty new last Saturday, they had a lot to digest from the first 8 games. Duke will still need to square up against Army's zone option game, and if they cover all of that then they can sit in amazement with Army fans on Saturday and sort out what Brent Davis has devised this week just for the Devils.